MOST state-educated children are happy where they are and only one in five would prefer to go to private school, a survey showed today.

Polls of parents have routinely shown that evenLabour voters would have their sons and daughters educated privately if they could afford it.

But a Mori survey for education charity the Sutton Trust showed 80% of 11-to-16-year-old state school pupils believed their comprehensive was either excellent, good or fairly good and increasing numbers planned to go to university.

Two-thirds of pupils in England and Wales said they enjoyed school most of the time, while 5% said they had a good time all the time.

But almost a quarter still said they did not enjoy school either most or all of the time, the survey showed.

The pupils who said they would go private if possible cited smaller classes, better equipment and the likelihood of achieving better exam results as their main reasons.

More than two-thirds of those who wanted to stay in the state sector said they would not enjoy going to a fee-paying school.

Pupils aged 11 to 13 feared other children at private school would make fun of them, while girls and children of jobless parents were more likely to worry they were not clever enough.

Margaret Tulloch, of the Campaign for State Education, said, "It's encouraging to hear young people speaking up for state education. Perhaps it might encourage ministers to do it more often."

John Bangs, head of education at the National Union of Teachers, said, "This vote of confidence, from an age group considered to be the most difficult, must give all those who have campaigned for effective, comprehensive state education a real boost

."

Sutton Trust chairman Peter Lampl, a prominent advocate of getting more youngsters from deprived backgrounds to go to university, said he was particularly encouraged by the fact that the proportion intending to do a degree rose from 68% last year to 71%.

But the poll showed that desire often depended on whether pupils were having a good time at school.

Mori found that 74% of those who thought their school was good planned to go to university, compared with 56% who rated it as bad.

Those who found school a drag were asked what would make it more interesting. Unsurprisingly, 70% wanted less homework, 41% fewer exams, 39% more lenient teachers and 33% easier lessons.

Mori got responses from 2,469 children at 100 middle and secondary schools in England and Wales between January 15 and March 12, 2003.